We love making our own granola bars around here. They are great to have in the house — especially when that snack attack happens.

These bars are absolutely delicious. That’s all thanks to the baking. We mix all of our favorite ingredients together with some sugar and honey. As the bars bake in the oven the sugar melts and caramelizes into the bars and at the same time the oats and nuts toast and become extra nutty.

The only catch to these seriously delicious bars is that they can crumble a bit on you. I’ve shared a few tips below in the recipe to help with this, but just like some of the harder store-bought granola bars the edges might break away on you a bit. We don’t mind this too much since the little bits are still tasty and just more like clumped granola bites.

If you are looking for a chewy granola bar, I highly recommend taking a peek at our Soft and Chewy Granola Bars. We love those bars so much, we actually made a quick video showing you how we make them.

Recipe updated, originally posted January 2011. Since posting this in 2011, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne

Homemade Baked Granola Bars

PREP 15mins

COOK 25mins

TOTAL 40mins

The only catch to these seriously delicious bars is that they can crumble a bit on you. I’ve shared a few tips below in the recipe to help with this, but just like some of the harder store-bought granola bars the edges might break away on you a bit. We don’t mind this too much since the little bits are still tasty and just more like clumped granola bites.

In a separate bowl, whisk the honey, melted butter, vanilla extract, and water until well blended. Pour into the bowl with oats. Mix well.

Spread the granola in the prepared pan and firmly pat down. To make sure, pat the granola down again. Bake until the granola is golden around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven, loosen the edges and cool for about 5 minutes.
Use a sharp knife or bench scraper to cut the bars while they are still in the pan, carefully remove and cool on a wire rack. The granola bars will keep up to a week when wrapped individually with plastic wrap. If the kitchen is humid, it is best to store the bars in the refrigerator.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

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AUTHOR: Adam and Joanne Gallagher

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Hello! Thanks for great recipes:) After trying your chewy granola bars which turned out so good I really wanted to make a baked version as well, but got stuck by converting cups into grams. Could you please provide measurements in grams? Thanks!

Hello Joanne and Adam
I made your Chewy Granola bars few hours ago,it comes out perfect.I did some changes since I read the comments that some of the ppl couldn’t cut the granola perfectly. I did some changes:
I did add a white egg to your recipe,in the other hand, I didn’t add 2tbs of water and 1/3 of the finely ground oat.
After my granola baked I let it cool down for more than an hour, I could cut is into bars. The tast and texture absolutely De Li Cious…..
Thank for sharing with us….

I just made these outstanding granola bars and my house smells wonderful!!! It is raining outside and has been for the last 3 days so it is kind of gloomy but in my house you’d never know it. I LOVE homemade granola bars and haven’t even tasted them. The aroma is out of this world, my husband tried them and he has never had homemade granola bars before. He loved them and said not to buy the box stuff anymore. I’m planning to give this batch to my daughter and her healthy friends for their trip. Thank you for the recipe and I will be making this again and again.

If you make lots of granola bars (every week or so) it may be worth investing in a separated pan. I have used baking pans that are for bars/ eclairs etc and instead of making one big batch that needed to be cut I made a bunch of individual granola bars. It works great, but if you only make them once in a while it may not be worth the money. There are pans such as the Slice Solutions Brownie Pan which have removable dividers as well 🙂

Hi guys, I love making granola bars and my recipe is pretty awesome but you can always improve, change and try something new. I have a trick that you may like: lightly oil spray the cookie sheet and of course use parchment paper. Then after pressing the prepared granola mix( make sure it is tight, using wet fingers), create a firm edge with a spatula and ….use a pizza cutter and make the pattern for your bars, YES before baking !!!! This process is almost fool proof, you may just have to use a knife and touch over your lines and enjoy a great, uncrumbled granola bar after they are baked. I will try your recipe against mine and will let you know but it looks amazing.
Since I started making granola bars, I will never go back to store bought…and so do my friends, which I supply on weekly basis, of course for a fee to buy my ingredients.

I am making these for the second time because they were so awesome that they disappeared too quickly the first time I made them. I added 4 kinds of nuts and seeds and dates as well as cranberries. I’ll never be satisfied with any other granola bar again.

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